Hebrew word · H7656

שִׁבְעָה

shiv'ah

Shibah

As a common word, shiv'ah is the form of "seven" used with masculine nouns. Here it is a proper name. The ordinary noun for "oath" is a different word, shevu'ah. So Shibah is a pun on "oath", not the dictionary word for it.

Appears once in the Hebrew Old Testament. ·

What it means

Shebah = "an oath"

the well named by Isaac and near Beersheba

Another name of be.er she.va (בְּאֵר שֶׁ֫בַע "Beersheba" H0884)

Abridged from Brown, Driver and Briggs, A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the Old Testament (1906), via STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0).

In depth

From the study of Genesis 26:33

Range of meaning

As a common word, shiv'ah is the form of "seven" used with masculine nouns. Here it is a proper name. It comes from the root š-b-', which gives both the number seven (sheva', H7651) and the verb "to swear an oath" (nishba', H7650), whose literal sense may be to "seven oneself", that is, bind oneself by a solemn act. The ordinary noun for "oath" is a different word, shevu'ah. So Shibah is a pun on "oath", not the dictionary word for it.

Against the English

KJV "Shebah", BSB/WEB/ESV/NASB/NIV "Shibah": all spell out the name and so lose the wordplay unless a footnote supplies it. YLT adds "[oath]" in brackets. NLT adds an explanation in parentheses. None can show that the same name also sounds like "seven".

Used elsewhere in the period

Gen 21:28–31 plays on both meanings of the same root: Abraham sets aside seven ewe lambs as a witness "because there the two of them swore" (21:31). The Septuagint here renders the name as Horkos, "Oath". The Vulgate renders it Abundantia, "Abundance", apparently linking it to śāva', "to be full, satisfied", which is spelled with nearly the same consonants.

Where it appears

Genesis · 1

  1. Genesis 26:33 שִׁבְעָ֑ה Shibah

    So he called it Shibah, and to this day the name of the city is Beersheba.

    Here: Spelled and voweled exactly like the Hebrew word for "seven". It also echoes the verb *nishba'*, "swear an oath", from the same root, used in v. 31 ("they swore an oath to one another"). One name calls up both the number and the oath.

Word data: STEPBible.org (CC BY 4.0), main text only.